Something Beautiful

Meditate.
Live purely.
Be quiet.
Do your work with mastery.

Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds.......Shine!
- Gautama Buddha

Concentrate on the value, not the results

I hope that my friend and fellow blogger am will forgive me for a bit of shameless pilfering from her very fine blog, Talking 37th Dream with Rainbow.  Just a few days ago she quoted the following from Thomas Merton: 

Do not depend on the hope of results. … you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself.

-- Thomas Merton in a letter to Jim Forest dated February 21, 1966, reproduced in The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters by Thomas Merton

"I imagine I am about to die"

There is some important way in which this quotation from Pema Chödrön is beautiful:

At least once a year, I imagine that I am about to die. Looking back as truthfully as I can at my entire life, I give full attention to the things I wish hadn’t occurred. Recognizing these mistakes honestly but without self-recrimination, I try to rejoice in the innate wisdom that allows me to see so bravely, and I feel compassion for how I so frequently messed up. Then I can go forward. The future is wide open, and what I do with it is up to me.

(From the book No Time To Lose) At first I thought that she was saying she does this once a week. That might be even better?

Feminine Tao (and other)

I came accidentally upon this site offering a Feminine Tao. I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but its quality seems obvious and its worth equally apparent.

The Feminine Tao is hosted at Early Women Masters. Again, I don't think I really understand the intent or organization of the site. And yet it's so appealing that I think it well worth mentioning here.

Forty-some years I've lived

From Daily Zen Meditation, by Shih-wu (1252-1352):

    Forty-some years I've
    Lived in the mountains,
    Ignorant of the world's
    Rise and fall.
    Warmed at night by a stove
    Full of pine needles;
    Satisfied at noon by a bowl
    Of wild plants;
    Sitting on rocks
    Watching clouds and empty thoughts;
    Patching my robe in sunlight;
    Practicing silence
    Till someone asks
    Why Bodhidharma came east,
    And I hang out my wash.

12 Zen Habits posts

These classic Zen Habits posts are really worthwhile.

Here, for example, is the author on the relationship between focus and goals -

. . . focus is the most important determination of whether you’ll achieve a goal or stick to creating a new habit. Not self-discipline, not rewards, not sheer willpower, not even motivation . . . . If you can maintain your focus on a goal or habit, you will more often than not achieve that goal or create that habit. (Focus)

And on the Four Steps for organizing any part of your home, office or even life -

1. Collect everything in one place.
2. Choose the essential.
3. Eliminate the rest.
4. Organize the remaining stuff neatly and nicely. (Four steps)

Contentment

Another truly excellent post from Zen Habits, this one on Living a life of contentment.

The author begins with this exhortation from Thich Nhat Hanh -

Whatever the tasks,
do them slowly, with ease, in mindfulness,
do not do any tasks with the goal of getting them over with.
Resolve to each job in a relaxed way, with all your attention.

He then gives 17 rules which strikes me as too many.

They can, however, be reduced to two main rules and a handful of corollaries. The two main rules are:

     * Focus on what's truly important to you;
         let the rest go.
     * Go slowly.

What really matters

I'd like to spend some time mulling over this piece on How to focus on what really matters.

Long is life

The Buddha:  "Long is the night to him who is awake; long is a mile to him who is tired; long is life to the foolish who do not know the true law." 

Bowing - a serious practice

"Bowing is a very serious practice. You should be prepared to bow, even in your last moment. Even though it is impossible to get rid of our self-centered desires, we have to do it. Our true nature wants us to. Sometimes the disciple bows to the master, sometimes the master bows to the disciple. A master who cannot bow to his disciple cannot bow to the Buddha. Sometimes the master and disciple bow together to the Buddha. Sometimes we may bow to cats and dogs."

-- Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971)